CITY MP SAYS “FUNDING SHORTFALL COULD SEND LOCAL NHS BACKWARDS”

New figures on the funding shortfall facing the NHS in England have prompted fears that patients in Nottingham South will start to see local health services go backwards.

With the NHS already showing signs of strains, a combination of inflation forecasts and the ‘double counting’ of social care funding means the NHS in England is set to see a £1.2 billion shortfall in the next financial year.

Lilian Greenwood said:

“Cuts to health funding is not what people expected when David Cameron promised to protect the NHS, and this shortfall in funding could add pressure on our local health service.”

“I am anxious about what this real-terms cut will mean for our area, and have written to the Chief Executive of Nottingham City PCT asking for urgent answers on the impact this could have on our local NHS, including patient care and frontline jobs”.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary John Healey MP added:

“David Cameron made the NHS his most personal pledge at the election, but it now stands as his biggest broken promise. With health services under some strain already, this cut to funding could send the NHS backwards.”

Figures published by the government’s own Office of Budget Responsibility have revealed that forecast inflation of 2.5% for next year will outweigh the previously proposed 2.0% increase in health spending for the NHS England, leading to a £0.5 billion cut.

Meanwhile, the government’s ‘double counting’ of social care funding in both the NHS England and local government budgets has left the NHS in England with a further cut of £700m.